CROWD CONTROL

Learning from Shelly Howard’s crash

4/8/05

nce again, we’ve been reminded that drag racing can be a dangerous, unpredictable sport.

In a bizarre accident, Shelly Howard, 59, and her son, Brian, 36, were killed April 2, at Tulsa Raceway Park. Apparently, Howard’s new A/Fuel dragster suffered a top-end blowover during a test pass and came down on its wheels, but pointing the wrong direction on the racetrack.

After skidding to a stop after going backwards past the finish line with the throttle still open and the rear tires churning forward, the car then headed back toward the start line where it crashed at very high speed into a station wagon in which Howard’s son was sitting in the back seat.

When something like this happens the entire racing community—competitors, sponsors, media members, fans—understandably and appropriately grieves and offers support to the family and team involved, but I think learning something from her crash would serve the Howards’ legacy even better.

An 8X4-inch Shelly Howard memorial decal is available through speedzonemagazine.com, with all proceeds going to the Oklahoma Special Olympics.

At first glance, unlike Darrell Russell’s fatal accident last year that highlighted the need for a protective shell around Top Fuel driver compartments, it may seem like Howard’s accident inspires no immediate case for safety improvements. It would be easy to say it was a freak occurrence, something no one could have prevented—and that may well be true as far as the car itself is concerned—but there’s still a lesson to be had.

In this particular case, being a test session, there were probably relatively few people standing around the starting area, but what if a similar situation occurred at a national event, or a divisional meet, or a match race, or a weekly bracket bash? This kind of accident—no matter how freaky—could happen again and not only with a high-powered dragster. It also could happen at a venue with an overcrowded starting area, leading to even more devastating results.

Is it so hard to picture a Pro Mod, Outlaw 10.5, or even a bracket car getting so out of shape it eventually careens back toward the crowd? Or an engine exploding in close proximity to starting-line observers? My point is that bad things can happen in a hurry at any racetrack and the more people there are in a dangerous area, the more likely it is that someone will get hurt.